Engaging external advisors and tech consultants with Antony Bream
Our guest is Antony Bream, the Founder and Managing Director at ribbit Consulting, mentor and member of numerous advising boards. Antony has over 30 years of experience in B2B sales for cloud applications primarily into the financial services marketplace. His focus is always clear on pivoting strategy quickly to realise ever changing market trends and building complimentary partner networks to accelerate revenue growth from channel with a joint value proposition.
In this episode, we discuss which industries might be more interested in engaging an external advisor and why companies seek such services. We also talk about how to collaborate with the advisor or technology consultant to ensure the highest value of this partnership and analyse how to choose the right partner.
Michał Grela: Hello and welcome to yet another episode of IT insights by Future Processing.
My guest today is Anthony Bream and we’re going to discuss how external advisors and tech consultants are helpful and why we should engage them. Anthony, would you be so kind and introduce yourself?
Anthony Bream: Yes, hello. I am the managing director from Rivet Consulting, which I founded seven years ago after many years selling software into financial services and building global software teams.
I found that selling was getting harder, and because I have a passion for the psychology of selling, I combined that with best practices to help clients embed intellectual property into their organisations to make selling easier. Buying has become much more complicated, so I help firms find the quickest way to convert a product idea into revenue.
Michał Grela: You are a member of many advising boards regarding strategy, governance, recruitment, and go-to-market approaches. What are the most important questions companies ask themselves today in this challenging environment?
Anthony Bream: First, I always hope a client has a sense of purpose. What is your purpose, and what problem are you trying to solve? I talk a lot about the concept of “starting with the end in mind,” a phrase I borrowed from Stephen Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.
It makes a founder rethink what the endgame looks like three or five years from now. Instead of planning forward, I advise planning back from that point. For example, if you want to be acquired, who are the top five acquiring companies today? This gives people a “North Star” or moral compass to help make easier decisions.
I like to use a framework of five “Ps”. The first is Purpose. The second is People. You need different skill sets at different times, so you must be brave in hiring for the short term while keeping an eye on the long term. You might need sales and marketing now, but when do you need a Chief Product Officer or a risk team?
The third is Process. I like to simplify complex problems into building blocks. I work with clients to map their business processes – how they run finance, how they sell, and how they report to the board. Defining these is vital because it clarifies roles and responsibilities; without this, scaling quickly leads to confusion because everyone assumes someone else is doing the work.
The fourth is Proposition. What value are you bringing, and what problem are you solving? I use the phrase “untrapped value” – what value are you helping your customer find? In the current climate, you need a laser-sharp proposition, such as addressing the energy crisis or sustainable investing.
An example is Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), which helps people control their spending and provides a service that untraps value for the customer.
The final one is Purposeful Technology. Is your technology fit for purpose for the next one, three, or five years? Can it scale, and how do you ensure data protection? You need a strong CTO to cover these angles.
Michał Grela: Where in that formula is there space for an external advisor?
Anthony Bream: It is a very important part because the way organisations function has fundamentally changed with the “great resignation” and “quiet quitting”. HR has moved from just hiring and firing to being a support function for hybrid and flexible work.
CFOs are now more involved in commercial decision-making. CEOs need to surround themselves with external advisors to run their business in an agile, flexible, and scalable way.
External advisors bring perspectives that a board might be too blinkered to see. They can hear what is happening across the industry. The best companies navigating these “troubled waters” have a strong core set of technologists and salespeople but use external tools and specialists to help those people be more productive.
It’s about bringing in new ideas and people who will question if you are doing things the right way. You need one ear listening to internal employees and one ear listening to the external market.
Michał Grela: How do you sort out the collaboration with an advisor or consultant to ensure the highest value?
Anthony Bream: I recently took a course at the University of Cambridge on psychology for executive coaching because I wanted to learn why people make the decisions they make. One key concept is the Abilene Paradox. It explains how conflict arises in organisations because strategy gets diluted or misinterpreted as it moves from the board to the employees.
If strategy and roles aren’t articulated clearly, people huddle in groups and make assumptions, which leads to uncertainty and demotivation. Leaders need to listen more than they talk and continuously validate their strategy with employees.
When choosing a consultant, experience counts – you want someone who has been through the growth curve. Chemistry is also important because you are working closely together, and they might have to “call your baby ugly” by telling you that something you built isn’t quite right. A good advisor uses data and evidence to manage the client fairly.
The role of a consultant has changed to be more consultative rather than directive. A good coach or advisor asks more questions than they tell. They help the client get clarity and reach their own conclusions so the client feels more vested in the idea. It’s a partnership where you combine the best of both parties.
Michał Grela: Lastly, regarding technology, what are companies looking for right now?
Anthony Bream: Number one is security. Migration to the cloud has happened because the economy of scale is too compelling to ignore, so securing that platform is critical. You also need a platform that is flexible and scalable.
We are seeing a trend of “embedded fintech” where non-financial companies, like car manufacturers or pharmaceutical firms, embed financial services into their supply chains or customer apps. This keeps clients loyal to the brand and provides useful data on client behaviour. To do this, you need a core platform with open APIs so you can plug in “best of breed” components.
Traditional banking platforms are often too slow and rigid, but newer, modular platforms allow for much quicker innovation and scalability while inheriting security from providers like AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure. It’s about focusing on what you are good at and plugging into existing infrastructure rather than reinventing the wheel.
Michał Grela: Thank you, Anthony, for these insightful pieces on your “5 Ps” and how to choose the right consultant. And thank you to our listeners. If you liked this, please share it or visit us at itinsights.tech.